Pros And Cons: A Look At Participation Trophies For Youth Athletes
Recently, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker and scary human-being James Harrison made waves when he took away his sons’ participation trophies. The general public was slightly appalled at the act, but as Harrison said, he was proud of everything his sons did and accomplished, but they didn’t EARN the trophies, and so they were being returned.
Participation trophies are nothing new, as young athletes have been receiving the trophies since the late-70s, a practice started by youth soccer leagues. But they certainly seem more commonplace today, particularly throughout youth sports.
Meanwhile, the debate on whether participation trophies are helpful or detrimental never goes away, and thanks to Harrison, it has once again become a hot topic. And everyone from professional athletes to parents has an opinion on the matter.
Are participation trophies a nice reward or a sign of entitlement? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons:
Pro: A Boost Of Confidence
Not everyone is a winner. It’s simply a fact, as typically 95% of all participants fail to capture a championship in any given sport or season. That’s because only one team or player can win.
However, only praising and rewarding the victor could have damaging affects to those who don’t win, particularly those younger athletes. Giving everyone involved some level of recognition goes a long way toward boosting confidence and promoting future success. It tells the athlete that they may not have won, but they gave it their all, and always giving your best is important.
After all, this year’s loser could be next year’s winner.
Con: We Play To Win The Game
Trying certainly matters, but when it comes down to it, the point of playing sports — much like any other game — is to win. So why reward anything less?
Understanding the difference between winning and losing is a wildly important life lesson. It teaches us how to deal with and overcome adversity, and that you don’t always get what you want. It also teaches us how to bounce back and recover from loss, while also providing athletes or performers with drive and purpose to be better.
Few lessons are more important than that.
Pro: Something To Play For
Losing is tough, but losing your interest is easy … especially when the losses start piling up.
For young athletes, it is very easy to lose interest in a sport if they’re not winning, which is why many leagues don’t even keep score at the youngest levels — but that’s another blog for another day. No one, particularly young kids, wants to feel bad every time they step on the field, court or ice. At the very least, a trophy to display in their bedroom is a nice light at the end of the tunnel for anyone that has to endure a tough season.
Besides, just because you aren’t the best doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to compete at all.
Con: Rewarding Proper Effort
There is no participation award for life. No one is going to simply hand you the life you want, you need to work hard to get the rewards you desire.
That is what James Harrison was trying to say when he took away his sons’ participation trophies. You’re not going to be rewarded for doing your job, and in fact, if you simply show up and don’t perform, you won’t have a job for long. But if you’re the best at what you do and work harder than your competitors, rewards will come.
And that goes for everyone — whether your job is being a football player, dentist or student.
Should participation be rewarded or are we teaching our young athletes bad life lessons? There are pros and cons to everything, but what do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Bro, if they are just sitting there and doing nothing they can not get a trophie of any kind if the try and still are not in at lest the top 5 then no, you have to work for what you want, and even if they los that gives them encouragement to do better
Young children have been given plenty of participation trophies for extracurricular activities, however when giving these young children should not receive them. Participation trophies takes away the motivation to improve, it actually “harms” a child when you are giving them a trophy for basically showing up. Understanding the difference between winning and loosing is a very important life lesson, especially for younger children, when playing a game or any other sport. Being blunt, young children are being rewarded for loosing when they are given a participation trophy.
He’s not judging he’s just saying his opinion
it’s not good to call people a LOSER but if you just sat on the bench and watched your team lose you don’t really deserve a trophy. but 1st 2nd or 3rd place people deserve a trophy because they tried hard.
Ok so im a student athlete thats never had a participation trohpy before and guess what i worked harder and harder im now a four time little league baseball MVP so i dont wanna hear its balanced or its good you have to earn it.
NO THEY HAVE TO EARN IT
I agree kids will not know what real work is unless the have some kind of an urge to do the sport.
I agree with this, it is very balanced between the pros and cons, and people should not focus on JUST the cons, because the pros balance the passage out and give the passage an option to agree with, either the participation
trophies are a good thing or a bad thing, don’t just focus on the bad or the good, read BOTH.
you are so mean to call people a loser. You souldnt judge people just because thye got in last place
STOP JUDGING PEOPLE
but they got in last place. THEY HATH FAILED!!!!!
The term loser is to say “the one who lost” so technically, they are the losers
I agree with all the facts that he listed especially young ones need to keep playing to learn more about how its played.
How stooopid is it to reward the loser